Plans to change legislation governing the Defence Forces to require the automatic referral of allegations of rape or other serious sexual assaults to An Garda Síochána has been described by the organisation representing commissioned officers as “a no-brainer”.
Lt Col Conor King, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (Raco), described the court martial system as “archaic” and said he understood why there was a widespread loss of faith in internal complaints procedures.
He welcomed the Independent Review Group’s report on the Defence Forces and said any statutory inquiry should proceed quickly so people could be reassured that “we rooted out anyone who’s still serving who thinks they were entitled to engage in this sort of behaviour”.
He said the case for referring allegations of rape or sexual assault to the Garda was clear. The review found that while allegations of serious criminal behaviour were generally passed on to the force, this did not always happen.
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The jurisdiction of courts martial to deal with the most serious offences was limited, the review found, adding “it is not clear” why this jurisdiction should be retained by the court martial system rather than passing it on to An Garda Síochána, prosecuting authorities and the civil courts.
“Amending the legislation so all allegations of rape or aggravated sexual assault in the Defence Forces must be referred to An Garda Síochána for investigation is such a no-brainer,” Lt Col King said.
“Why would the Defence Forces be equipped, even be entitled, to investigate a sexual assault? If a member came to me and said that she or he had been sexually assaulted, I would say ‘Oh my God, we’ll get you to the guards immediately because they are the people who have the competence.’”
Lt Col King said there was general frustration with the wider internal complaints procedures, caused in part by staffing issues, and he hoped the report would prompt an overhaul of these systems.
“We have this archaic kind of court martial system that takes way, way, way too long, and makes people lose faith in the process because it is dragged out, for years in some cases,” he said. “People maybe see these kind of cumbersome, overly bureaucratic complaints procedures and go, ‘it is not even worth the pain involved in complaining’.”
Some of the problems, he said, were caused by staff shortages and by people with responsibility for investigations being moved on during them. He said Raco and PDForra should have a part to play in any reformed structures.
The report should be regarded as an opportunity, he said. “There’s a lot to talk about it being a watershed moment and it has to be.
“If we don’t accept these recommendations and work really hard to implement them for the benefit of the organisation, we are in big trouble. But if we do, it can be a positive.”
